The Yeşilburç church, built of yellow cut stone and dark basalt, is a three-aisled basilica with three apses laid out east to west; above roof level its walls are entirely of basalt. The building is used as a mosque, and it opened to visitors in 2023 after maintenance, repair and the addition of a viewing terrace. To the east stands a square, two-storey bell tower of basalt with four columns and a dome.
The narthex has an arch on each side and three on its west front, and a cross-vaulted ceiling; from it a door with an inscription in Karamanlı Turkish leads into the main hall. Inside, two rows of four columns carry plain capitals, only two of them with volutes at the corners. In the room above the narthex a fresco of a two-winged angel's head is clearly visible, and the vaulted ceiling of the main hall keeps traces of painted decoration. Four windows open to the south and four to the north.
The apses, rounded inside and angular outside, are separated by an inner wall and have a window each, with seven niches between them in all. A window was later cut into the southern apse and a door into the middle one.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Niğde as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -0.2 °C in January to 22.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (48 mm) and lightest in July (6 mm). Long-term means for 1935-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
